"for the sake of humanity"… A small town American high school history project changes lives worldwide. These are the observations of a veteran teacher- on the Power of Teaching, the importance of the study of History, and especially the lessons we must learn, and teach, on the Holocaust. Click on "Holocaust Survivors, Liberators Reunited" tab above to begin.

We know why we are here. Warsaw.

~Matthew Rozell, a history teacher whose project reunited hundreds of Holocaust survivors with the American soldiers who liberated them, takes a backwards journey to the authentic sites of the Holocaust, retracing the path of the survivors who are now his friends.~

A year ago I took one of the most transformative journeys of my life, with 24 fellow educators, to study the Holocaust and the Jewish resistance to it, in Washington, DC, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland. I kept an extensive diary and took tons of photographs. And contrary to many assumptions, it was a journey that led to profound understandings about life, not death. For the next several days, I have decided to go back and retrace my steps and try to process what unfolded for me.

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July 16. I wrote in my journal on the bus ride back from Treblinka. The handwriting is nearly illegible due to the poor roads, underscoring the remoteness of this place where 900,000 plus were murdered.

In the afternoon we headed to the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. As in many occupied areas the cemetery also contains a mass grave.

Wall rebuilt with smashed stones. Warsaw Jewish cemetery.

A poignant memorial statue also exists here to Janusz Korczak (1878-1942), who was murdered at Treblinka with 200 of his orphaned charges, accompanying them to the gas chambers.

There is so much more to learn here. In the evening we dress for a Chopin recital.

The dichotomy is striking. Horrible places by day. Evening debriefing and intense discussions over dinner, palatial accommodations by night. The concert is in a former palace.

I’d say we deserve it.

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July 17.

We tour Jewish Warsaw and finally the remnants of the ghetto wall, and also the Umschlagplatz. It is here that forced gatherings for the mass deportations to Treblinka took place. I am also reminded of the scene from the film “The Pianist”.

The Umschlagplatz. As many as 10,000 Jews were deported on some days to Treblinka. Upwards of 300,000 were sent from here to their deaths.

The Umschlagplatz. Our group. 2013.

The Umschlagplatz. As many as 10,000 Jews were deported on some days to Treblinka. Upwards of 300,000 were sent from here to their deaths.

We walk the edge of the wall, memorialized in bronze in the sidewalk.

And we come to a section that still stands.

Warsaw Ghetto wall.

Warsaw Ghetto wall. Some Israeli teens are here, listening to their teacher.

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was the first open fight in an occupied city against the Germans. And it was conducted by Jewish youth, who held off the Germans for half a month in the spring of 1943. Utterly inspiring and amazing. We make our way to Mila 18, the bunker command post where Mordechai Anielewicz and many of the resistance fighters breathed their last. It is another solemn moment.

18 Mila Street.

Monument at Mila 18.

We know why we are here. We are not only witnesses, but we were chosen to become, for many, the point of entry on the immense and sometimes unfathomable subject of the Holocaust, and the many forms of resistance that were taken during it. And so rightly, our trip is concluding here. The processing will only come over time.

2 Responses

It is not necesary to exegerate. , One month, that you write the warsaw jews fighted? to you seems better that 14 days ? As a learned man you know exacte date when the ghetto hear a first shot. the 19 April 1943,
But what day when fighting stopped? Not one month later, that for sure.
It is also important to mention what day of the week the German entere to the ghetto to finish the work licfidation started on JANUARY 1943. .
it is importnt, ti konow beacouse Germans usually begin their murderos action on later Friday or Saturday, or any other days sacred to Jews.
Little detail, nobody mention.
Then 19 April is only sure date.But when was the FIN ?
the Jews did not ask for surrender, No one Jew contacted SS commander Stoop and proposed surrender….

Published in 1946 THE GHETO FIGHT by one ZOB ( Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa- Jewish Fighting Oganisation) commander, mention ,” at the first of May we sing Internationale”, ( INTERNATIONALE song was and is communist workers song, sang at the first of May traditional european workers day. In US and Canada it is first of September)

After that date we do not have any information. The fight stops.The bunkier at Mila street where the Jewish command with Anielewicz was no longer. .. From bunkers, from not yetdynmited biulding the Jews were ramased in the buring streets to railroad station, passed by by the Umschlagplatze and loaded to the bestil wagons.. Some time you may hear a was a shot, The German soldier made a kill.

15 days or 30 days, En face of mass murder it seems to not really matter.
Of course one month is biger that 15 days.
One month seems biger ? Better? More heroic?

The Poles started their own rising on 1 August 1944 No one metioned before but one month later on 1 September the Poles asked the Germans SS commander von dem Bach Zelewski to surrender .The German refused the condition imposed by the Pole. The final Polish surrender was signed 3 Octobert 1944.

Remember.The Jews did not ask for surender…

Compare two uprising The Polish Warsaw Jews uprising in 1943 and the Poles Warsaw uprising only 11 month later ..

Starting with the numbers of fighters Polish Jews around 300 versus 12.000 Poles. in Warsaw
What arms has the Jews, what arms has had the Poles..?
The Polish Jews fighted with no hope for surviving, The Poles fighter to be free.
Why nobody made a comparaison. In hundreds of study by the Poles, and the Jews estimed historians on both we have a voluminous studie. except that one…

Why do I made a problem with one month ?
Becouse was there , I saw and remmender For some Jews even the most learned one, one month is better that 15 days. For me is most tragic…

Dear Sir, your work is splendid well writen, interesting ,instructive,altough has few iriting errors, ome unexactitudes, but is good, very good.
Maybe we can meet and work together.
But remmeber For me the times is ruling fast. And after ,who will be your corrector….Nobody who lived in the time you write about.
yours freind , not enemy.
pierre zwolinski..